Friday, December 28, 2007

We upgraded to Java 6 almost 9 months back at my workplace. We faced no major problems working with projects which were using Spring. But, as soon as I started working on an EJB 3 project, I realized most application servers aren't even ready for Java 6 yet.

I do have multiple copies of Java installed, but testing with all these versions 1.4, 5 and 6 is a nightmare.

Now, its too late for us to switch back to Java 5. And, with Java 7 coming soon, it's surprising that some application server vendors don't yet support Java 6.

What version of Java are you using at work?Are you facing any problems at all?

We are on Java 6, and use a combination of servers--an older version of Resin, Tomcat 6, Mina, etc. All runs fine (and fast). Nice to have the management and monitoring features. Good luck with your transition.

Not entirely sure Java 7 is coming "soon" as you state. There are major hurdles to sort out, among the biggest choosing whether to include closures and which one. So with the current speed (no leader/architect in Java) I doubt Java 7 will arrive before 2009.

According to this (it is a few months old), Spring of '08 was the original schedule, but obviously they are no where close to meeting that and January 2009 is now their target. And I wouldn't be willing to put money on them being able to meet that deadline, especially considering everything that is being thrown around involving closures.

We are using Java 6. Since we support different operating system from Linux to MacOSX we were really in a mess when apple dropped the ball on Java 6 for leopard. We had to quickly make a backward conmpatible release for Java 5 users of Mac.

There are many performance improvements in Java 6 as comapred to Java 5, one of the main reasons for our switching.

About Me

I have worked at various levels in the software industry since my graduation in 1987. I have several years of software programming experience around the globe, from Bangalore, India to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to the United States. I have been working on JEE and .NET technologies exclusively for the last several years. Since joining Synopsys, have been working on all of CI/CD, DevSecOps, Secure SDLC activities such as code review, Threat Modeling, ARA, and training.
I am also very involved in the Java community. Several of my own book reviews, articles have been published by JavaLobby.